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At 2.53pm on July 11 this year, David Kurk burst into tears. The former
Premiership Rugby match official and Wasps fan says that he remembers the
exact time that he received the results from a biopsy which confirmed that
he had prostate cancer, but the following moments were a blur. “For the next
20 minutes, you could have said anything to me, I just didn’t take anything
in,” Mr Kurk, who is 56, said. “I walked out of there almost as if I had a
halo around me, stopping me hearing or seeing.

“As far as I was concerned I was going to die. My first question actually was,
when am I going to die? You hear the word cancer and your brain immediately
goes all over the place.”

Feeling lost and confused, he surfed the internet looking for answers. He
found that for every site telling him he was destined for recovery, he found
another telling him that his situation was desperate. Pushed by a friend, he
decided to call the Prostate Cancer UK helpline. “I decided I needed to
speak to the people who know,” he said.

The helpline is the only UK-wide telephone and e-mail helpline service
dedicated to prostate cancer and prostate problems. The phone line, which
has existed for the past 14 years, receives 600 to 800 calls every month.

It is staffed by specialist nurses who can offer up-to-date, reliable and
balanced information on all aspects of prostate disease. Workers also offer
emotional support and can ensure that vulnerable callers receive help from
other organisations and services.

“People will go on the internet, do a Google search and come up with all sorts
of information,” said Suresh Rambaran, one of the specialist nurses who
staffs the helpline.

“We have to tell them what is genuine and based on facts and evidence. We
can’t give false reassurance. We have to be realistic and tell them all the
possible outcomes.”

The helpline most commonly receives calls from men who have had prostate
cancer diagnosed and who are seeking advice on treatment options, but also
women who need advice about a spouse or partner with the disease.

Prostate Cancer UK employs one senior specialist nurse and ten specialist
nurses who all work on the helpline. However, this staff does much more,
visiting companies and local community groups to raise awareness of the
disease, and working with prostate cancer support groups.

Mr Rambaran, who has worked on the helpline for ten years, said that his role
left him with mixed emotions. “I don’t want to say I get job satisfaction
from other people’s grief,” he said. “But it is satisfying to know that I
can help.”

When Mr Kurk called the helpline he was put through to a nurse who described
himself simply as “John from Glasgow”.

“My life was falling apart and I didn’t know what to say,” Mr Kurk said. “But
this guy was sensational. He took me through all of my options. I was a
55-year-old man who was more like a five-year-old. I didn’t have a clue what
to do. He took the mystery out of it. The doctors told me I needed a radical
prostatectomy. Well, that sounds pretty serious. John demystified all of
this for me.”

He added that without the helpline “I think I would’ve been in a really bad
place. Because the internet is a great thing, at the same time it’s
dreadful. John said, day or night, we’re always here. That was so
reassuring.”

The advice from the helpline helped Mr Kurk to realise that he had a good
chance of receiving successful treatment. Armed with facts — and having
grilled his doctors with detailed questions on potential treatments — Mr
Kurk, who is from Marlow, had a prostatectomy in September at Wycombe
General Hospital, in Buckinghamshire. He was pleased to find that his
surgeon was a Wasps season-ticket holder.

Last week he went back to receive the latest results from his tests. The
doctors gave him the all clear. He admits that, once again, he burst into
tears.